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In order to select virus strains for the manufacture of Influenza Vaccine for 2001 Season, a meeting of the Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC) on Influenza Vaccines was convened on 25   October 2000.

Having considered the information on international surveillance by WHO and up-to-date epidemiology and strain characterisation presented at the meeting, the Committee considered that the WHO recommendations on the composition of vaccines for 2001 Southern Hemisphere Season should be followed:

H1N1 strain:	an A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like strain A/New Caledonia/20/99 (IVR-116) is recommended as a suitable vaccine strain.	15 µg HA per dose.
H3N2 strain:	an A/Moscow/10/99 (H3N2)-like strain A/Panama/2007/99 (RESVIR-17) is recommended as a suitable vaccine strain.	15 µg HA per dose.
B Strain:	A B/Sichuan/379/99-like strain B/Johannesburg/5/99 is recommended as the suitable vaccine strain. The B/Victoria/504/00 may also be endorsed as an alternative vaccine strain if the yield of this strain is greater and further testings confirm that it is a B/Sichuan/379/99-like strain.	15 µg HA per dose

Further advice concerning the suitability of the B/Victoria/504/00 will be provided as soon as the data are available.

The SRID reagents for testing the potency of influenza vaccines for A/New Caledonia/20/99 (IVR-116) and A/Panama/2007/99 (RESVIR-17) are available from NIBSC and CBER/FDA. However, the preparation of B strain reagents is still in progress and they need to be calibrated jointly by CBER, NIBSC and TGAL. There will be updates for the B reagents as soon as they become available.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 24, No 10, October 2000.